Mistake by county to cost agricultural landowners more tax dollars

Owners of flood irrigated agricultural land will soon receive notices that the assessed evaluation assessment rates for those properties were too low and have been adjusted. (Wikimedia Commons)

Last May, all Morgan County property owners received notices containing the values at which their properties would be assessed for tax purposes. However, it now turns out that two types of properties were wrongly assessed and those property owners will be receiving updated valuations for those properties later this month.

The owners of those properties will likely see a somewhat higher tax bill than they had in prior years as a result, a county assessment official said.

Last month, the Morgan County Commissioners were notified during a meeting with the state auditor that an audit review revealed that the county had not made correct tax valuations for both sprinkler and flood irrigated agricultural land and was thus out of compliance with state requirements for those values.

Morgan County Chief Appraiser Paul Dowell said the county had used an assessment rate of 86 percent of actual value for sprinkler irrigated land and 89 percent for flood irrigated land. The new assessment rates, which the commissioners chose to adopt in order to get into compliance with the state, are 96 percent for sprinkler irrigated land and 98 percent for flood irrigated land.

Dowell said the commissioners voted on those rates but they must be compliant with state regulations. He said those values are typically sent out in May of every odd numbered year.

The county's deputy assessor said the owners of those properties would likely see a higher tax bill but told the commissioners that it was too early to know for sure. Dowell said that is because the county mill levy (the tax rate that is applied to the assessed value of a property) will not be determined until the end of the year

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"There's no way to pinpoint what the actual taxes are going to be until then though you can estimate them," he said. "The taxing districts will all set their budgets for the year and a mill levy will come out for the end of the year based upon the new budgets from the taxing district so that could go up or it could go down too it just depends on the budgets."

Still, Dowell said he did not think those owners would see a large increase as a result of the new valuations.

"The values going to go up an additional five percent so I would maybe call it a modest increase at this point," he said. "It might be significant to some people though, it just depends on how many acres they have. It's hard to say."

Dowell said notices explaining the new evaluations and the reason for them would be sent out by the Morgan County Clerk and Recorder's office. He said he did not know when the notices would be sent but said he thought they were supposed to be sent out within thirty days of the county's decision to adopt the new valuation ratios.

Dowell said residents who feel their property has been misclassified or otherwise mis-described for tax purposes will have the opportunity to file an appeal with the commissioners just as they did with the May notices. Dowell said that it is up to the Board of Commissioners, who act as the County's Board of Equalization, to hear and make a determination about any appeal but said the county assessor's office would assist with providing necessary information.

"Anyone who thinks that their property is mis-described by us is able to appeal," Dowell said. "It would be inadvertent that it would be—nobody would intentionally mis-describe it—but if it were then we would correct it."

Dowell said it was important that the commissioners vote to adopt the new evaluation percentages when he and Krening presented them to avoid the state getting further involved. He said that the state would then order a reappraisal of the non-compliant properties and could determine their own rates for assessment based on them. He said the state could possibly determine to tax the flood irrigated properties at 100 percent rather than 98 percent.

"That would obviously be a disadvantage for the taxpayer," he said. "But it would also at the same time be a cost for the county because any cost to do a full reappraisal would be our burden from our budget."

Commissioner Jim Zwetzig said those who received the notices and had concerns should contact the assessor's office.

"I think [the assessor's office] would be the best source because they can explain and show those ratios and how that's arrived at," he said.

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